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At Core, our CSR vision is ‘to help transform lives in a positive way and shape a brighter future’. We aim to do this by partnering with charities that we feel can help us to carry out this vision. We have a few chosen charities, such as Junior Achievement Ireland and HUGS.

Besides fundraising, we believe it is important to take a physical part in helping our chosen charities. Each year, we send volunteers to help teach Junior Achievement Ireland programmes in primary and secondary schools across Dublin. We also have a group of volunteers who fly to Kenya as part of HUGS, to the Child Support and Youth Resources Centre in Machakos, Kenya. We have also been working with the Simon Community and plan to gather a group of Core employees to fund and furnish a psychologically informed environment for a former homeless person.

HUGS

HUGS works in conjunction with the Terry Child Support Centre in Kenya. It gives orphans and other less fortunate children access to a better quality of life through education, resources and amenities. This year, the proceeds from our Strictly Core Dancing fundraiser went to HUGS and Jigsaw.

In November 2019, we had the pleasure of Mama Leah (Reverend Leah Ambwaya), founder of the centre, visiting our office with her daughter, Patricia. Mama Leah told her story of setting up the centre, which provided great insight into the impact of the work that our volunteers do bi-annually on their visits to the centre. Unfortunately, due to the impact of Covid-19 this year, our volunteers were unable to travel to Kenya. We hope in 2021 that our volunteers will get an opportunity to fly out and work with the Terry Child Support Centre and Mama Leah.

Jigsaw

We have worked with mental health charity Jigsaw on several initiatives in 2019/2020. Core partnered with Jigsaw to launch their new campaign Revolution x Jigsaw, which was a virtual cycle challenge to ensure that children in Ireland will have access to the mental health services and supports they deserve. The CSR committee worked closely with Jigsaw to get people to sign up and take part. Taking part on Mental Health day in October 2019, Core colleagues cycled on static bikes from 9am until 4:30pm, raising €2,205 for the charity.

Junior Achievement

The main focus of Junior Achievement is to encourage school kids to remain in education. Every year, 15 employees from across Core volunteer to go to inner city schools to teach a Junior Achievement programme. As part of the CSR Committee's collaboration with Junior Achievement Ireland, Core’s boardroom become the Dragons’ Den!

In Association with

We had a 5th and 6th class group from St. Patrick’s boy’s national school in Ringsend visiting us to present their business plans and pitch for financial investment. We had our mentors to help guide the students with their short presentations, and ‘Dragons’ for the students to face.

Business in the Community Ireland

In 2018, we started working with Business in the Community Ireland’s Time To Read scheme, in which we partnered with St James’s Primary School in Dublin 8. Twelve volunteers from Core read with 20 children from 2nd and 3rd class once a week for 20 weeks. Each child gets a half an hour one-on-one reading time with a Core volunteer once a week.

In 2020, some of the children from St. James’s Primary School got a chance to see where their ‘reading buddies’ work. The kids had a tour of the office and got to complete their reading time in the comfort of our CoLab meeting room, completed with optional dress-up!

Photo: Core wins the Silver ‘Investors in Diversity’ Award from the Irish Centre for Diversity (ICD). (From left) Caroline Tyler from ICD with Jill Downey, Managing Director of Core Sponsorship and Aidan Greene, Deputy CEO Core